Astros betting farm system can help build a winner

Astros betting the farm can help build a winnerTeam still rebounding from decade of despair

BERNARDO FALLAS and ZACHARY LEVINE, Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Monday, February 22, 2010

Photo: Julio Cortez, Chronicle

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Top catching prospect Jason Castro could be poised to play a major part with the big league club in 2010.

Top catching prospect Jason Castro could be poised to play a major part with the big league club in 2010.

Photo: Julio Cortez, Chronicle

Astros betting farm system can help build a winner

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KISSIMMEE, Fla.— One look at Jason Castro, the Astros' 22-year-old top prospect entering spring training, and you get the impression he's big league-bound.

At 6-3 and 210 pounds, Castro has the look of a major leaguer. More importantly, say those who have followed his progress closely, he plays and thinks like one.

“Hopefully I put myself in a good position preparation-wise to do my best and have a good spring,” Castro said.

Spend a couple of minutes talking to him, then watch him catch and throw with seeming effortlessness — as he did Saturday during the first workout for pitchers and catchers at Osceola County Stadium — and you walk away convinced.

The Astros have felt that way for some time. In fact, they have so much faith in Castro, the team's top pick in the 2008 draft, that they've fast-tracked him. If they are correct, Castro is only months — if not weeks — away from breaking into the majors as their starting catcher.

“On draft day when we took him, I thought he would be fast; I don't know about this fast,” said Astros assistant general manager Bobby Heck, also the director of amateur scouting. “He's sped himself up.”

The truth is Castro's arrival can't come soon enough for the Astros.

Not only would it afford them the type of everyday catcher they believe they lack, but it also would provide a crucial boost to the Astros' minor league system.

Once one of the most admired in baseball, the farm has fallen from grace and, by most accounts, hit rock bottom a while ago.

A toxic combination of bad drafts, misguided business decisions and faulty philosophies and tendencies in scouting crippled the system severely. The Astros are paying the consequences now — with interest.

“We have been very weak at the upper levels because we haven't had much from 2000 to 2007 aside from (outfielder) Hunter Pence,” said Tal Smith, the Astros' president of baseball operations.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the Astros' farm is consistently ranked as one of the worst in the majors by reputable sources such as Baseball America, ESPN and Sports Illustrated.

“There are three basic ways to build a good farm system — by doing well on the draft, signing international talent and, in the event that your major league club isn't a contender, trading away big league talent for prospects,” said Ben Badler, an assistant editor at Baseball America, which ranked the Astros' farm system dead last in the majors for a second consecutive year. “For years, the Astros didn't do any of them particularly well.”

Changes are afoot, and there are signs of improvement, with the likes of Castro, shortstop Tommy Manzella (third round of 2005 draft) and pitcher Bud Norris (sixth round of 2006 draft) possibly playing key roles this season.

But things were so bad as recently as three years ago that the Astros are bound to play catch-up for at least another couple of years.

The way they were

The Astros believe they are better than the rankings suggest, although they concede to failures that led to their current state, which in 2009 included having every one of their minor league affiliates post a losing record.

Heck is confident improvement has occurred since his arrival some two years ago to justify a better standing.

“I would say we’re probably anywhere between 20 and 24, and even on par with that group,” he said. “Looking at the players and the number of players who jumped levels last year and the number of players who had success out of the 2008 draft, individually there’s a lot of good things.”

Heck should know. He helped rebuild Milwaukee’s system into one of the best in the majors before joining the Astros in late 2007.

But the rest of Major League Baseball caught up in Venezuela, and the Astros closed the academy in 2008, citing the volatile political climate there. Simultaneous with the loss of an international edge came problems on the home front in the draft.

The Astros' run since picking Lidge in 1998 has been equal parts comedy and tragedy, especially at the top.

Of the first-round selections since 1999, only Chris Burke has made the majors, with other picks falling by the wayside for a plethora of reasons. Pence, a first-year All-Star in 2009, was a second-round pick in the 2004 draft.

Worst of all was 2007.

A debacle from which the Astros are still reeling, they had no pick in the first two rounds because they had to compensate teams for Carlos Lee and Woody Williams. They failed to sign their third- and fourth-round picks, with third baseman Derek Dietrich going to Georgia Tech and pitcher Brett Eibner from The Woodlands heading to Arkansas.

“That will hurt any organization, whether it's the Yankees or Oakland,” said Astros assistant GM Ricky Bennett, who oversees player development. “If you don't sign your first four selections, that has an impact, not just that year, but it takes a long time to recover from that.”

By most accounts, recovery has begun.

The Astros abandoned draft-day tendencies of shying away from high school picks and of chasing mostly pitchers, arguably the most prized but also the riskiest commodity in baseball. For the past two drafts, the team has signed its picks, and the international arm of scouting has reached out to Asia.

Also, the Astros say they won't hesitate to create an express line for a player to the majors if he proves he can handle it (if Castro makes the roster, he will have skipped Class AAA Round Rock), and the team has opened an academy in the Dominican Republic. Since last year, the team has a Gulf Coast League affiliate.

One Heck of a job

More importantly, the Astros went out and got Heck, who promptly shook up the scouting department and instituted a new mindset and approach at the grass-roots level.

“We've got a turnaround,” Smith said. “We've got a new philosophy.”

As it happened, part of the rebuilding began with what early indications paint as a successful draft in 2008.

But this year will present another big opportunity, as the Astros have three of the first 33 picks in June's draft because of compensation for the loss of Jose Valverde.

“This is extremely important for us moving forward,” Heck said. “These three picks really have a chance to impact our organization.”